Red soils harbor diverse culturable actinomycetes that are promising sources of novel secondary metabolites.

Red soils, which are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of southern China, are characterized by low organic carbon, high content of iron oxides, and acidity and, hence, are likely to be ideal habitats for acidophilic actinomycetes. However, the diversity and biosynthetic potential of actinomycetes in such habitats are underexplored. Here, a total of 600 actinomycete strains were isolated from red soils collected in Jiangxi Province in southeast China. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed a high diversity of the isolates, which were distributed into 26 genera, 10 families, and 7 orders within the class Actinobacteria; these taxa contained at least 49 phylotypes that are likely to represent new species within 15 genera. The isolates showed good physiological potentials for biosynthesis and biocontrol. Chemical screening of 107 semirandomly selected isolates spanning 20 genera revealed the presence of at least 193 secondary metabolites from 52 isolates, of which 125 compounds from 39 isolates of 12 genera were putatively novel. Macrolides, polyethers, diketopiperazines, and siderophores accounted for most of the known compounds. The structures of six novel compounds were elucidated, two of which had a unique skeleton and represented characteristic secondary metabolites of a putative novel Streptomyces phylotype. These results demonstrate that red soils are rich reservoirs for diverse culturable actinomycetes, notably members of the families Streptomycetaceae, Pseudonocardiaceae, and Streptosporangiaceae, with the capacity to synthesize novel bioactive compounds.